National Press Club to Host "NEWSMAKER" Media Briefing: Federal Judge to Address Waste, Abuse, Case Overload And Growing Cost of Social Security Disability Program As Disability Fund Nears Insolvency

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Apr 15, 2013, 12:52 ET

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Hon. Randall Frye, President of the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ) and a federal judge with the Social Security Administration based in Charlotte, NC, will discuss ways to counter waste, abuse, and runaway costs in the Social Security Disability Income program at a National Press Club Newsmaker news conference on Friday, April 19^th at 10 a.m. in the Zenger Room of the National Press Club, 13^th Floor, National Press Building, 529 14th St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

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According to the Social Security trustees, the disability fund is headed for insolvency in three years. If the fund becomes insolvent it will cause a 21 percent cut in benefits to 11 million Americans with disabilities and qualifying spouses and children. The fund is barred from running a deficit and could only pay benefits based on incoming revenues.

The program cost $132 billion in 2011, more than the combined annual budgets of the departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Commerce, Labor, Interior and Justice.

Applications to the disability program have risen more than 30 percent since 2007 and the number of Americans receiving disability benefits is up 23 percent in the same period. The courts have experienced a 57 percent increase in cases since 1990.

Each administrative law judge is required to hear 500 to 700 cases per year. Lawyers, many of whom find clients through television commercials, represent 80 percent of claimants, while the government lacks a representative in these hearings.

SOURCE National Press Club